French & Saunders

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders emerged out of the boom in Alternative Comedy, appearing as a double act in The Comic Strip live show alongside Rik Mayall & Adrian Edmondson (20^th Century Coyote) and Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson (The Outer Limits). After The Comic Strip had its first run on Channel 4 (indeed on the inaugural night of Channel 4), French and Saunders were given their own sketch show by the BBC in 1987.

Written and starring Dawn & Jennifer, they were initially produced (and then produced and directed) by Geoff Posner, and quickly snowballed in popularity, not least for the film parodies, and such classics as the schoolgirls and the little fishes sketch and the over-keen-to-get-on-screen Grandstand background typists. And then there were the Two Fat Men... The theme music was originally provided by Simon Brint and Roland Rivron as a hideously ugly pub combo called “Raw Sex”.

Each show also featured a Special Guest as themselves, such as Alison Moyet, Michael Grade and Roy Castle, something which was deemed daring and radical at the time, but thanks to French & Saunders has now gone on to become a staple source of comic cross-referentiality in modern sketch shows.

French & Saunders

French & Saunders

Well, French & Saunders have their own official website, and quite right too. Here's the link

As well as tour details, news, archive and all that jazz, it's got links through to where you can get DVDs of all their work.

Or click here to read the BBC comedy guide to French and Saunders